Movie Info

RATING:

PG

INTENDED AUDIENCE:

Older children to adults

RELEASE:

March 2004

TIME:

97 minutes

GENRE:

Spy Comedy, Mystery

STARRING:

Frankie Muniz, Anthony Anderson, Cynthia Stevenson, Daniel Roebuck, Keith Allen, Hannah Spearritt, and Keith David

DIRECTOR:

Kevin Allen

WRITERS:

Don Rhymer

DISTRIBUTOR:

MGM/UA

 

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MOVIE REVIEW

Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London

By Bruce Donaldson
Reviewer, MovieGuide Magazine

What's This?

CBN.com –Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (CB2) is a big improvement on the first movie. The first Cody Banks film was marred by a sexual tone too mature for the targeted audience. It was basically designed as a gateway drug to the innuendo-laden James Bond series. CB2, however, is void of any sexual references, and the story benefits from it. If you are one of the people who take advantage of the addresses, we provide to contact the studios, you might write them to tell them you noticed the adjustment and appreciate it.

The story opens with Cody Banks (Frankie Muniz) in training at the secret CIA summer camp for kids. When the parents come for visitors’ day, the spy base cleverly transforms into a typical camp. None of the parents know that their children are governmental operatives. This, of course, plays into every child’s fantasy that they know more than their parents.

Camp “Commander in Chief” Diaz (Keith Allen), seems a bit hyper-passionate about his position as “camp director.” During training sessions he yells at the kids, “Trust nobody. Trust equals death!” The poor man is bitter about being relegated to the level of a “babysitter” for the CIA. One night, CIA agents in black helicopters invade the camp. Chief Diaz tells Cody it is a simulation exercise and that he and the rest of the youth must help the Chief escape.

Later, the CIA director (Keith David) has to explain that Chief Diaz is a rogue agent involved in mind control experiments, and Cody trustfully helped him to escape. Of course, loyal Cody Banks offers to right his wrong by getting the Chief back. That is just what the director wanted to hear.

Cody is sent to London, England disguised as a clarinet virtuoso. He is enrolled in a school for musical protégés. The woman who runs the music school is unwittingly married to an evil mastermind, Duncan Kenworth, who has designed the mind control computers for Diaz. Cody has never played the clarinet. He joined marching band in high school as a clarinet player just to meet girls, but he never had to play because the volume of all the other instruments covered him. How is he going to succeed on his mission before his genius peers find him out?

Chief Diaz has hired Kenworth to create a mind control chip that will make the representatives of the G7 conference in Europe his puppets. Kenworth demonstrates the power of his invention by making his dog play the piano and pour a spot of tea for Diaz. They employ a crazy dentist to replace the world’s leaders’ molars with dentures that contain the mind control chip. Once each nation is in Diaz’s control, he will rule the world!

Can Cody maintain his cover long enough to find out where Diaz and his henchmen are hiding? Can a teenage boy save the world. . . again?

CB2 is well written and well crafted entertainment with a basic moral worldview of good versus evil. The characters that Cody meets in London, besides his “handler,” Derek (Anthony Anderson), are masterfully played by British actors who are rarely seen in films produced in the United States. Each of them portrays a quirky personality fit for a children’s fantasy film.

Aside from some action violence and a couple scatological gags, a Media-Wise Family might consider Agent Cody Banks 2 a fun day out with their preteen and young teenage children.

Please address your comments to:

Alex Yemenidjian, CEO
MGM/UA
2500 Broadway Street
Santa Monica, CA 90404-3061
Phone: (310) 449-3000
(C) baehr, 2004